Law and Politics Commons^™

U.S. Recognition Of Japanese Sovereignty Over The Senkaku Islands, Raul (Pete) Pedrozo

International Law Studies

Every U.S. administration from Truman to Kennedy recognized Japanese residual sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands. U.S. policy changed, however, to one of neutrality under the Nixon administration during the negotiations of the Okinawa Reversion Treaty. The change in policy was not based on a belief that Japan did not retain sovereignty over the islands, but rather was done to appease the Republic of China over its impending expulsion from the United Nations and to break an impasse of the ongoing textile negotiations with Taipei. The administration’s overtures to China, culminating in Nixon’s visit to China contributed to the decision. Since …

Lawmakers, Wolf Need To Clarify Pa.’S Mail-In Voting Law Before 2022, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

The Aristotelian Thought And Bases Of The Democracy, Fathi Zerari

UAEU Law Journal

In the modern world, the importance of democracy has increased significantly for several reasons such as human rights prosperity and the crisis of legitimacy from which many countries are suffering, especially developing countries. This has allowed an opportunity for some states to use the question of democratization as a means to put pressure on systems that do not intersect with their interests, particularly those systems that do not accept any interference in their orbit.

On the other hand, some non-democratic regimes try to prolong their lives by using the question of national sovereignty as a pretext to avoid any talk …

2nd Annual Women In Law Leadership Lecture: A Fireside Chat With Debra Katz, Esq. 03-03-2021, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Conditional Driver's Permit In Texas, Texas A&M University School Of Law Community Development Clinic, Madeline Marguerite Byers, Olivia Countryman, Taylor Garner, Crystal Hernandez, Luz E. Herrera, Lisa Mares

Legal Clinics

This report recommends expanding access to state-issued driver permits for Texans who are unable to obtain a driver license due to state requirements imposed pursuant to federal law. Many Texans, especially some of our most vulnerable residents, have difficulty meeting heightened identification requirements under federal law, and consequently drive without state authorization and auto insurance. This report also highlights the benefits of establishing a new driver’s permit and why it should be accessible by Texans who are natural disaster victims, experiencing homelessness, family violence survivors, and immigrants with no lawful status, a complicated immigration status, or in the process of …

Constitutional Law—The Powers Of State Attorneys General To Determine Public Interest, J. Dillon Pitts

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Settled Law, G. Alexander Nunn, Alan M. Trammell

Faculty Scholarship

“Settled law” appears frequently in judicial opinions — sometimes to refer to binding precedent, sometimes to denote precedent that has acquired a more mystical permanence, and sometimes as a substantive part of legal doctrine. During judicial confirmation hearings, the term is bandied about as Senators, advocacy groups, and nominees discuss judicial philosophy and deeper ideological commitments. But its varying and often contradictory uses have given rise to a concern that settled law is simply a repository for hopelessly disparate ideas. Without definitional precision, it risks becoming nothing more than empty jargon.

We contend that settled law is actually a meaningful …

Data Autonomy, Cesare Fracassi, William Magnuson

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, “data privacy” has vaulted to the forefront of public attention. Scholars, policymakers, and the media have, nearly in unison, decried the lack of data privacy in the modern world. In response, they have put forth various proposals to remedy the situation, from the imposition of fiduciary obligations on technology platforms to the creation of rights to be forgotten for individuals. All these proposals, however, share one essential assumption: we must raise greater protective barriers around data. As a scholar of corporate finance and a scholar of corporate law, respectively, we find this assumption problematic. Data, after all, …

Pornography, Its Harms, And A New Legal Strategy: Research And Experience In Japan, Seiya Morita, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article we describe pornography’s harms in Japan, which are known about from surveys and research, and from the outreach and consulting activities of Japanese feminist-abolitionist groups. Among these are the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) and People Against Pornography and Sexual Violence (PAPS). We then propose a renewed classification scheme for pornography’s harms that centrally considers the experiences of victims in Japan. Lastly, we consider various legal approaches to addressing the myriad harms we describe and suggest possibilities for a new legal strategy. The article’s research comes from Japanese-language materials produced by the above-mentioned activist groups, as …

Sacrifice For The Mandate Of Heaven? Regression Discontinuity Of Death Penalty Execution In Taiwan, Austin Horng En Wang, Yuan Ning Chu, Fang Yu Chen, Ming Jui Yeh

Political Science Faculty Research

© 2021 Western Social Science Association. The death penalty enjoys overwhelmingly cross-partisan support among Taiwanese citizens. Politicians, mass media actors, and anti-death-penalty activists all believe that death penalty executions boost the president’s approval. As a result, Taiwanese presidents are motivated to strategically execute prisoners, trying to improve their approval rate. To examine this myth, we exploit data from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2012; six inmates were unexpectedly executed during the survey period. This unique opportunity enables us to examine the causal relationship between implementing a welcoming policy and its effect on public opinion. Contrary to popular belief, however, …

We Have To Defeat The Myth Of The Stolen Election. We Risk Destroying Our Democracy If We Don't, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Incitement, Insurrection, Impeachment: Inside The Second Trump Impeachment, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Partisan Gerrymanders: Upholding Voter Suppression And Choosing Judicial Abdication In Rucho V. Common Cause, Frances R. Hill

University of Miami Law Review

Under the Constitution, voters choose their elected officials. Partisan gerrymanders, however, enable elected officials to choose their voters and, in the process, dilute the votes of citizens who do not support them. From this perspective, partisan gerrymanders undermine the sovereignty of the people and, thereby, undermine the foundation of this democratic republic. In Rucho v. Common Cause, the Supreme Court declared that partisan gerrymandering raises a nonjusticiable political question beyond the competence of the federal courts. This Article asks: How did this happen? How could the Supreme Court abdicate its duty to protect the sovereignty of the people and …

Anti-Science Ideology, Shi-Ling Hsu

University of Miami Law Review

Political attacks against scientists and scientific research are nothing new, though the Trump Administration appears to have increased both the breadth and the depth of such attacks. What is new, it seems, are attacks on science that are not in service of protecting any identifiable regulated industry. Under the Trump Administration, the attacks on science are more systemic, and aimed more at reducing scientific capacity in the federal government, rather than mere one-off policy interventions to help an individual industry.

This Article suggests that the Trump Administration, more than previous administrations, has sought to use science as part of a …

Using Election Forecasts To Understand The Potential Influence Of Campaigns, Media, And The Law In U.S. Presidential Elections, Peter K. Enns, Julius Lagodny

University of Miami Law Review

How do campaigns, media, and voting laws influence the outcome of U.S. Presidential elections? Political scientists often argue that these factors influence outcomes much less than commonly thought. To illustrate this argument, we show that we can predict the presidential vote in each state with a high degree of accuracy. Specifically, between 2004 and 2016, we correctly predict 94% of all state presidential vote outcomes. Our predictions are based on a forecasting model of the Electoral College, based primarily on each state’s approval rating of the incumbent president (using almost 90,000 survey responses from June and July of election years), …

Virus As Foreign Invader: U.S. Voters & The Immigration Debate, Rebecca Sharpless

University of Miami Law Review

Nativist sentiments against classes of immigrants have existed since colonial times. But views about immigration and immigrants drive U.S. electoral politics now more than ever, accounting for a significant number of voters who crossed party lines in the 2016 presidential election. The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to harden deeply-held beliefs about outsider threats and further entrench the polarization of public views on immigration. During his campaigns and term in office, President Trump popularized nativism, breaking from the received wisdom of the Republican party. Casting the virus as a foreign invader, he built on fears of the contagion to alter …

The Cost Of Free Speech: Combating Fake News Or Upholding The First Amendment?, Brittany Finnegan

University of Miami Law Review

This Note examines the pervasive and evolving “fake news” problem. Specifically, it explores whether the United States government could pass legislation, modeled after a recently passed German law, regulating propagandistic social media posts. The answer to this question, in short, is no. By comparing the German Basic Law and the U.S. Constitution, this Note highlights the stringency of U.S. First Amendment protections and underscores the U.S. government’s inability to combat fake news through legislation. While this Note primarily focuses on the prevalence of fake news in the context of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, related developments and areas of research …

Power To The People: The Supreme Court’S Confirmation Of State Power In The Wake Of Faithless Electors, Gabrielle Engel

University of Miami Law Review

One of the most cherished American liberties is the right to vote. Yet, the Constitution does little to protect the integrity of individual voters. Instead, the Founding Fathers created an Electoral College to represent states’ will. Over time, states enacted laws requiring that electoral votes be cast to reflect the state popular vote. In 2016, several electors voted for candidates who did not win their state’s popular vote, grounding their actions in a believed constitutional right to vote freely and unencumbered by state outcomes. The Supreme Court addressed this issue in Chiafalo v. Washington, holding that states may bind electoral …

Law School News: Whitehouse, Cicilline To Offer 'Inside View' Of 2nd Trump Impeachment Trial 02-17-2021, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Judiciary In The Fight Against Corruption (Analytical Study In Light Of The Iraqi Law), Khalid Al Zubaidy

UAEU Law Journal

The phenomenon of corruption is manifested in most countries of the world, including Iraq, It is the result of revolutions and uprisings witnessed in a number of Arab countries in what was called the Arab spring.

Corruption has many causes and manifestations as well as different effects. That being said, it can be addressed through multiple methods. Primarily, by laying the foundations for good governance, the use of legal mechanisms, including prevention and remedies, and focus on the role of the judiciary. The success of the latter depends largely on the provision of a number of guarantees namely ensuring its …